Joan Robinett

Abstract

Marie Cieri: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself: where you’re from and how you got involved in activism here?

A native of Tennessee, Joan Robinett was propelled into activism by the grim discovery that the mobile home park she and her family had moved to in Dayhoit, Kentucky, was located on a federal Superfund site. Unknown to residents, the well water had been massively contaminated with carcinogens by the mining machine repair company next door, and many of them, including Robinett’s young son, had developed severe but inexplicable health problems. Though they didn’t at the time suspect that something was wrong with the place where they were living, Robinett and her family moved about a mile upstream, and her son’s health began to improve. A year later, the government tested the water and began to warn people to stop using it, without revealing the severity of the problem. It was this lack of full disclosure, as well as the contamination, that spurred Robinett into becoming a community activist.

In the following interview, Robinett tells the story of how she and her Appalachian neighbors taught themselves to counter business and government misinformation and indifference to their plight. This involved not only versing herself in the chemistry of complex contaminants and their impact on human health but also learning how to organize herself and others to function effectively within the legal and political arena. On a personal level, she talks about how difficult it was to stand up to the intimidation tactics leveled at her by corporate mining interests and how she struggled to reverse the ingrained perception in many poor Appalachian communities that they are powerless against the forces that have ravaged the regional landscape.

Robinett and her neighbors eventually filed suit in federal court against the owner of the contaminated site in Dayhoit and received a settlement, but this struggle just marked the beginning of Robinett’s commitment to grassroots community activism. Since then, she has continued to work on environmental issues but has broadened her involvement to include battles against political corruption and initiatives to lessen local economic dependence on the mining industry. Along these lines, she has been working with her second husband, Andy Jones, on the marketing of local arts and crafts outside the region through the Appalachian Heritage Arts Guild. Finally, she is optimistic that conditions in the area are improving, mainly because she feels that people of different political persuasions are beginning to work together on what they perceive as shared problems.